A View from Main Street: Despite cynical coverage, Tea Parties made an impact

BY PETER DAY

Monday

Apr 20, 2009 at 10:40 AMApr 20, 2009 at 10:45 AM

Contrary to a perception in some conservative corners, National Public Radio offers countless hours of entertaining, informative and generally inoffensive radio and podcast content. But sometimes it lapses into its cliched liberal point of view, posturing from up high and sending down barbs of condescension to the meek, misled masses.

Last week's anti-taxation Tea Parties, like the one at Bear Valley and Cottonwood roads, provoked a veritable avalanche of disgust from the left including a segment on NPR's "On The Media," an otherwise compelling weekly show hosted by Bob Garfield and Brooke Gladstone.

"Fox News covered the Tea Party protests like a 50-cent deodorant, but is that all it did?" Gladstone asked during a titilating promo that introduced On The Media's coverage of the nationwide anti-taxation events. "This week, Fox News crossed a line by actively embracing - some would say co-sponsoring, some might say co-opting - the Tax Day anti-tax and government spending tea parties across the country," Gladstone said during her "report."

Gladstone's segment went on to imply that the Tea Parties weren't a grassroots movement, rather they were contrived "astroturf" created in part by Fox News.

But NPR wasn't the only one to come unglued by last week's Tea Parties. If the Tea Party momentum was due to astroturf, those media outlets criticizing the April 15th events seemed to be completely in sync with each other. Did you get the memo? Railing against unbridled taxation just isn't cool.

The Huffington Post web site published a page of images called "10 Most Offensive Tea Party Signs." One photo shows a toddler in Panama City, FL carrying a sign reading, "How will I pay for this?" Another photo shows a young man with a placard of a light-skinned hand giving money to a dark-skinned one (President Obama?) with the words, "I am not your ATM."

Racism is indefensible. Criticizing the policies of a U.S. president who happens to be African-American is merely a part of the process of getting American out of a very difficult time. Should those worried about the direction President Obama is leading us hold their tongues just because he has a higher amount of melanin than them?

Then there's Jon Stewart, the progressive movement's darling of all things comedic and politically satirical. Stewart's schtick consists of showing a few over-the-top video clips and then saying some smart-alec comment."If there's one thing I know about the American people, they love baseball, kicking ass and paying taxes to the American government -- and discretely billed hotel porn," said on the "Daily Show" following the Tea Parties last week.

Certainly the news coverage of Fox News should be taken with a grain of salt. It clearly comes from a decidedly conversative perspective. But discounting the views and actions of those attempting to redirect our nation and troubled state of California away from its welfare-state ways isn't helpful nor particularly funny.

TV personality Jon Stewart, who probably has millions of dollars in the bank, may be able to afford to hand over large amounts of money to the government. And NPR broadcasters can spew fancy phrases from the comforts of their lower Manhattan studio. But everyday folks on Bear Valley Road, and here on Main Street, know that times are tough. Really tough.

The anti-taxation Tea Parties might not have been especially eloquent. They might not have captured the fervent imagination of intellectuals. But they demonstrated a willingness by average citizens, like those here in the Victor Valley, to get out there and do something.

And that's a start.

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